IRCTC scam: Delhi court grants bail to Rabri Devi and Tejashwi Yadav

The court asked RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav to appear before it via videoconferencing on November 19.

The Patiala House Court in New Delhi on Saturday granted bail to former Bihar Chief Minister Rabri Devi, former Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav and other accused in the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation scam. The court asked the accused to submit a personal bond and surety amount of Rs 1 lakh each, The Indian Express reported.

The Central Bureau of Investigation, which is inquiring into the case, opposed the bail plea on the grounds that it would hamper the probe, DNA reported.

Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, also an accused in the case, did not appear before the court on the advice on his doctors. The court fixed November 19 as the next date of hearing and asked Yadav, who is in prison in a fodder scam case, to appear before it on that day via videoconferencing.

The case relates to alleged irregularities in a tender awarded to a private company called Sujata Hotels to develop and operate two railway hotels in Ranchi and Puri in 2005, when Lalu Prasad Yadav was the Union railways minister. In return, he allegedly received a three-acre plot worth Rs 45 crore through a benami company owned by the wife of a Rashtriya Janata Dal parliamentarian.

The Enforcement Directorate registered a criminal case against the accused under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act based on a First Information Report filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation in April.

On August 24, the Enforcement Directorate filed its first chargesheet against Yadav, Rabri Devi and others. The chargesheet also named Tejashwi Yadav, former Union minister Prem Chand Gupta and his wife Sarla Gupta, a company Lara Projects (earlier known as Delight Marketing Private Limited), and 10 others.

The CBI had also filed a chargesheet against Lalu Prasad Yadav, his wife and son, and 11 others in the case.